There are many different types and styles of hand-held surgical instruments that physicians use to gain access into interior body regions. These instruments are intended to penetrate tissue by the application of pushing forces, twisting forces, or both in combination.
Often, a single surgical procedure will require the physician to employ different surgical instruments, each possessing a different shape, size, and function. Often, the procedure will require the physician to deploy these instruments in both soft and hard tissue to meet the diagnostic or therapeutic objectives of the procedure. The physician will often need an enhanced mechanical advantage to advance an instrument through tissue, particularly through dense or hard tissue, such as bone.
The common need to use different instruments in a given procedure, coupled with the absolute need to accurately and reliably deploy each of these different instruments through both soft and hard tissue, often with an enhanced mechanical advantage, complicate the physician's already difficult task. The need to handle different instruments in different ways for different purposes can distract the physician and lead to wasted effort, which lengthen the overall time of the procedure.